The Homeless Crisis in America
Tom Dispatch
By Cedar Monroe and Liz Theoharis
September 8, 2024
In 2019, a group of homeless folks were living on a deserted piece of land along the Chehalis River, a drainage basin that empties into Grays Harbor, an estuary of the Pacific Ocean, on the coast of the state of Washington. When the city of Aberdeen ordered the homeless encampment cleared out, some of those unhoused residents took the city to court, because they had nowhere else to go. Aberdeen finally settled the case by agreeing to provide alternative shelter for the residents since, the year before, a U.S. court of appeals had ruled in the case of Martin v. Boise that a city without sufficient shelter beds to accommodate homeless people encamped in their area couldn’t close the encampment.
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A New Pax Romana
Tom Dispatch
By Liz Theoharis and Shailly Gupta Barnes
July 28, 2024
Roman poet Juvenal coined the phrase “bread and circuses” nearly 2,000 years ago for the extravagant entertainment the Roman Empire used to distract attention from imperial policies that caused widespread discontent. Imagine the lavish banquets, gladiatorial bouts, use and abuse of young men and women for the pleasure of the rich, and so much more that characterized the later years of that empire. And none of it seems that far off from the situation we, in these increasingly dis-United States, find ourselves in today.
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The Moral Response to Homelessness
Tom Dispatch
By Liz Theoharis and Shailly Gupta Barnes
May 21, 2024
On April 22nd, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Grants Pass v. Johnson, a case that focuses on whether unhoused — the term that has generally replaced “homeless” — people with no indoor shelter options can even pull a blanket around themselves outdoors without being subject to criminal punishment.
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New Way: The Podcast of the 1001 New Worshiping Communities Movement
May 9, 2024
“The Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis grew up in activism and stops at nothing to name, reclaim, and live out God’s solidarity with the poor and downtrodden. Rev. Liz is the Executive Director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, & Social Justice; and the Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, a National Call for Moral Revival.
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The grassroots movement known as the Poor People’s Campaign aims to turn the exploited into a giant electoral force.
Truthout
By Nicholas Powers
April 3, 2024
Suppose 53 million low wage workers across the United States seized control of politics. See the hotel maids washing bedsheets and migrants in blood-splattered aprons at meat plants mobilizing for their interests. See baggy-eyed nurses and fast-food staff take part in mass uprisings. Now imagine millions of poor people standing in long lines to vote. America would marvel at this sleeping giant, now awake.
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The Failing Battle for Health and Healthcare in These All Too Disunited States
Tom Dispatch
By Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis
March 10, 2024
The slang definition of “unwinding” means “to chill.” Other definitions include: to relax, disentangle, undo — all words that, on the surface, appear both passive and peaceful. And yet in Google searches involving such seemingly harmless definitions of decompressing and resting, news articles abound about the end of pandemic-era Medicaid expansion programs — a topic that, for the millions of people now without healthcare insurance, is anything but relaxing.
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